This invention relates generally to computer processes and specifically to a method by which a person unskilled in crossword puzzle construction can use a computer to construct custom crossword puzzles.
FIG. 1 shows a crossword puzzle 10 having particular characteristics important to the invention. The crossword puzzle 10 includes an unsolved crossword puzzle grid 12 and a list of clues 14 or definitions. The solution 19 is shown in FIG. 1A. This crossword puzzle 10 and its solution 19 were made with use of the process herein disclosed. In general, this is the type of puzzle that appears in newspapers and magazines. It has several characteristics that distinguish it from other types of crossword puzzles. It is usually made of words that are at least three letters long. It has many empty cells 16 (the small squares) that are capable of receiving a letter and relatively few blocked out cells 17. Most importantly, all of the empty cells 16 are crossed, meaning that they are in two crossing words. This means none of the cells 16 that are to receive a letter are "blind." This is very important because a puzzle solvers frequently must figure out a difficult word by doing some intersecting words first. The type of crossword puzzle in which every cell is a member of two intersecting words will be referred to herein as "fully-crossed."
If the puzzle is substantially fully-crossed but there are a few blind cells that are members of only one word, then the puzzle will be called "tightly-crossed." Use of a tightly-crossed puzzle might be excused when the pattern of blocked cells is supposed to express a particular image that cannot be portrayed by a fully-crossed pattern. An example is a pattern having four diagonal "ladders" of blocked squares in the shape of a baseball diamond. This pattern has four blind cells, one to the inside of each of the four "bases." It is acceptable because it is not done to simplify puzzle construction but to help convey a baseball theme. Thus, while it is useful for a program to be capable of making tightly-crossed puzzles, the real goal is usually a fully-crossed puzzle.
It is very difficult to make a fully-crossed puzzles with words of non-trivial length. Relatively few people have the skill to make such a puzzle, even when no particular words must appear in it. The task is even more difficult when the puzzle constructor wants certain words in the puzzle.
Another kind of crossword puzzle, herein called a "loosely-crossed" crossword puzzle, is not the subject of the invention and is mentioned here to distinguish it. These puzzles are easy to make. They can be constructed exclusively of preselected theme words, using no "glue" words to tie the puzzle into a single whole. Additional words usually can be added as desired without difficulty. These puzzles tend to have irregular patterns with lots of open space in them. They have fewer words for the space they occupy. Most importantly, only a few of the cells are crossed with another word. This means the words contain many blind cells. Blind cells are undesirable because the puzzle solver has only one way to figure out the letter, and that is to identify the word itself from that word's clue. If stuck, he or she cannot determine the letter by turning to the clue for a perpendicularly intersecting word.
The difference between these two kinds of crossword puzzles can be thought of as the difference between the abilities of a skilled crossword puzzle constructor, one who has invested a great deal of time developing this talent, and the ordinary person, which includes most crossword puzzle solvers. A fully-crossed crossword puzzle also has greater aesthetic appeal.
Computer software for designing crossword puzzles takes on several forms. First is software that allows a person to design a crossword puzzle using his own crossword construction skills. This type of software replaces a pencil and paper. The constructor manually creates an intersecting arrangement of words on a computer monitor. It helps the constructor like a word processor helps the writer. Sometimes tools might be provided to find such things as all five letter words ending in "ED". The extreme difficulty of designing publication-quality crossword puzzles even with a tool like this limits the usefulness of such a program.
A second type of crossword construction software takes a more active roll. The user enters a list of words that he wants to appear in a crossword puzzle. The program then assembles these words into a loosely-crossed crossword puzzle. A loosely-crossed crossword puzzle is one that has relatively few words and most of the letters in the words are not crossed (or keyed) by perpendicular words. There are also lots of blocked or blank spaces instead of cells.
These crossword programs must be carefully scrutinized to be classified. It is common practice for an advertisement of a software product to say that you can use it to create crossword puzzles for profit by selling them to newspapers and magazines. The reality is that you either have to be an expert designer or find a magazine willing to publish a loosely-crossed puzzle, because the advertised product can not create fully- or tightly-crossed crossword puzzles automatically.